A record 21 million people cast early votes for Sunday's House of Representatives election, up 62.54 percent from the previous contest in 2014, partly due to an approaching typhoon, the government said.
A total of 21,378,387 people cast early votes from Oct. 11 through Saturday, accounting for 20.10 percent of all eligible voters in Japan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
A ministry official attributed the rise to an increase in the number of polling stations for early voting set up at stations and commercial facilities as well as concern about the powerful typhoon, which was projected to make landfall in central or eastern Japan.
The figure was much higher than the previous record of 13,984,085 set in the 2009 lower house election.
The number of early votes rose from the previous general election in all of the country's 47 prefectures, with Mie marking the biggest increase of 107.21 percent, followed by Okinawa at 96.08 percent and Kochi at 89.60 percent.
